12 March 2018

Sandbox - 12mar18

[Time to revisit the national education scene with the just published critique Common Core by Nicholas Tampio (review here), and also enjoy the comedy of ‘Doomsday Climate Scenarios Are a Joke’ by Oren Cass (more here). Of course we can also re-circle the Trump and Stormy imbroglio a few more times. gjr]

--I served in the Army during the Vietnam War, although I spent all of my time in the states. No need to thank me for serving; I just did what is expected of every patriotic American when his number is called. I did it so well I was offered a direct commission.

--The deadline for my column in The Union is noon Friday, several hours before the news services moved the story about the Pentagon's recommendations for Trump's parade. But we all know it doesn't matter what the Pentagon recommends; it's what the big brain in the White House wants. No tanks? No artillery? No missiles? No planes flying in tight formation? We'll see about that.

I spent a lot of time around infantry units when I was in the Army, and I detected little enthusiasm for parades, honor guard duty, and other ways of sucking up time in the military. I'm sure the troops are smart enough to understand that this parade is more about political grandstanding and racking up Brownie points with Trump's base than it is about honoring our military personnel.

I'm flattered that Bessee has nothing better to do on Sunday night than read the online version of my column that will land in his front yard Monday morning. That gives him at least one thing in common with Pelline.

But I will give Bessee props for using his name, unlike the anonymous maroons who comment at Dragon's Breath. One of them thinks I'm wearing a neck tie in the mug shot The Union runs with my column. That's the kind of commentary you can expect from those creeps.

It is amazing to me that just about everything we have questions concerning the prior Administration’s role in the “involving” the Russian Collusion story (and leftover leakers in the current Administration) has already been published in the press long ago. It’s all there, using unnamed sources in various intel agencies or “sources close to the White House” as the NYT and Wa Po were falling over each other to be first get the goods out on Trump. All one has to do is go back and read the articles published before and after Inauguration Day. It’s all there, albeit it was published with glee and fevor to achieve a different result. :)

For example, the only real hard felony we know of is the leaking of the unmasked name ‘Flynn’. Big time felony. Yet, reading old NYT and Wa Po headlines, it was all there. There are only nine possibilities (suspects) for leaking the name of an unmasked American citizen to the press. Nine people. Which one? Which ones?

Despite all the bad PR the FBI has taken lately, it would be a relative easy task for the FBI to find out exactly who of the 9 committed this egregious abdominal violation of law and civil liberties.

It’s all there, the press spilled the beans with much help from those in power. Try it sometime. I did and it took me to the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). “Wiretapping” Trump Towers? It was all laid out from early Jan, 2017 to when it came to a head in March, 2017. That is when lamestream media started to realize they left too many broken twigs to mark the trail and made it easy for others to follow. But, I digress.

Honest Injun, I am not running for President, says the first Washington Redskin.

“We’ve long teased Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren over her tenuous claims of Native American ancestry, calling her Sacaja-Warren and Fauxcahontas. Well, here’s a new one that may fit best of all: Iron Eyes Lizzy. Readers of a certain age will recall Iron Eyes Cody, the actor known for portraying Native Americans in numerous Hollywood films, as well as shedding a tear in one of the country’s most well-known television public service announcements, “Keep America Beautiful.” Well, Ole Iron Eyes was actually Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American pretending to be an Indian — not just in commercials and movies but in real life. His ruse lasted until his half-sister outed him decades later, though he lied about it so long he may have actually convinced himself he was Indian.

So you can see why that behavior fits Warren quite well. As we’ve noted, Warren has used this supposed ancestry for gain in both her academic and political careers. That continues to this day.”

--One our biggest problems is leadership in the area. If you want to see an example of somebody who is truly in over her head, check out Betsy DeVos' interview on "60 Minutes." I felt sorry for the poor woman, and I don't even like her

George Boardman | 12 March 2018 at 01:54 PM
Yeah what her butt Leslie just wanted to trash the woman and she is not that kind of person that seals with that crap like you or me. DeVoss is smart, rich and still attractive. She is all about choice in education which liberals hate except for murdering babies. So I am glad you don't like her, makes me like her more.

You gotta feel sorry for India. First the Canook Justin Turdeau just got back from parading around in ceremonial Indian garb all over India with several wardrobe changes a day.......until even the SJWs tried out for mercy, imploring him on social media to quit walking around in Wedding Day Groom attire, lol. Not very gender neutral, I may add.

Now, Hillary arrives. What did that nation ever do to the West that we would treat them so shabbily? Sorry India.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, My Gal does remind me of mi abuela on the stairs.

Ah, the first of many reports to come in. And Meuller’s big catch so far is, what 16-17 Russians, 13 of which worked on the 2014 election cycle. Many trees must be murdered to make paper copies of all the reports when they come it. Maybe we shouldn’t sell gov’t assets so quick. Looks like we are going to need more warehouse room.

I cancelled my subscription to Scientific American when they adopted the science behind anthropogenic warming. Now we are we seeing a change in direction at Scientific American? Time will tell.

Apocalyptic scenarios attributed to global warming are simply false and the human race will be able to accommodate whatever “climate change” throws at us, claims a remarkably sober new essay in Scientific American.

The essay, penned by John Horgan, the director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, analyzes two recent reports by “ecomodernists” who reject climate panic and frame the question of climate change and humanity’s ability to cope with it in radically new terms.

Tomorrows Pennsylvania 18th Special Election will be a thermostat about how far Trump has fallen. He won the district by 23% last year and polls show Democrat Conor Lamb is likely to overperform in Pennsylvania no matter who wins. In fact Lamb is slightly ahead in most polls over Republican Rick Saccone. A loss or even a close Repub win will send a message Trump might not be invited to the party next fall.

Going to be fun to watch. the Repubs are dumping tons of cash in the election because they are worried.

This is about security, and which country is going to hold power in the 21st century. The Trump administration has declared that its foreign policy will be “America First,” and this decision lives up to that slogan.

Oh Punchy, that guy Lamb is straight from Central Cadting. Military vet, good looking, tall, educated, thinks Pelosi is poison.
The Dems will be hard pressed to replicate Lamb with 7% of their canadates. We will see. The worse candidate in history Judge Roy barely loss, lol. You will be hard pressed to find a a whole field of Judge Roy’s running in the midterms as well.

It is not wise to take off one’s armor before the battle begins. Thought you learned that most embarrassing and painful lesson in 2016. I thunk wrong. November seems like a long time away right now.

Is she that lady that carries the little plastic Obama adult toy in her purser to fondle from time to time, or was that some former NYT Executive Editor?

“Hanging on and hoping for the best is certainly one approach to rescuing the best of liberalism from its discontents, but my answer is admittedly more ambitious: It’s time to give socialism a try.” —The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Bruenig

Hmmm. Those rows and rows of Toyota pickups used by ISIS to drive unmolested to set up their Capitate in Syria/Iraq were also traced back to US origin.

“Hezbollah operates like the Gambino crime family on steroids, and [Safieddine] is its John Gotti,” ex-DEA agent Jack Kelly, who created the task force, told Politico. “Whatever Iran needs, Safieddine is in charge of getting it for them.”

Safieddine was ultimately linked to a massive drug-smuggling and money-laundering network allegedly led by Lebanese businessman Ayman Joumaa.

Agents discovered Joumaa had smuggled tons of cocaine into the States — then laundered $200 million a month by buying used cars from American dealers.

"An extraordinary number of former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. "

Final thought (for awhile) on My Gal Hill before the T Rex closet lubbers come out of the woodwork and come running over here.

My Gal said Democrat have problems with males, and married white females. Or was that white males. Anyway, she just explained her lack on campaigning in the Mid-West and Rust Belt. She wrote them off. She wrote them off because of Pride...and a bit of why bother?

She said in the interview before the most recent slip, sliding, away that she wanted to win the popular vote. Pile it on in Philly, the West Coast and win the popular vote. See, Bill Clinton really wanted to win the popular vote so bad he could taste it his last try. Got denied the first time and a big disappointment that he failed to do it with his re-election. She had to win the popular vote. Hillary knows the electoral college inside and out. She junked it all to win the popular vote.....after writing off males and their white wives. She always held them in contempt. Pride, flipping off Bill and saying, “Hold my beer.”

There is already a story out cheerleading for Hillary 2020. The rapid response team is on it. :)

T Rex was not a good pokesman for the State Department nor was he all aboard on the Trump Train. Good enough don’t cut it. Cohen a few days ago, T Rex today. If you can’t make the grade, you don’t make grade.
Besides, T Rex hated Washington DC and always loved Texas. Just not the right fit for State. Heck, our SE Asian Affairs Department Head ain’t filled yet and T Rex ain’t sending up good names to fill the positions. Actually, T Rex ain’t making a convincing enough agrument of why he is blocking / not submitting those who are in on the Trump agenda up to the President to have those positions filled. Heck, we still don’t ambassor positions filled yet, albeit Chucky the Clown is blocking the gay diplomat Trump really wants to send to Germany. Been with Trump since the beginning, will do a great job. A go getter.

T Rex’s heart ain’t into it, but he dropped it all to serve his country when called. Honorable man and he didn’t collude with Putin to have Kremlin-Exxon take over all the oil in the world.....as a certain Popinjay once feared. Stay dry.

"... anyone on the Right calling Barack Obama an appropriate shade of monkey."

To be fair, there was a certain amount of that. The right wing version of OBEE WONTON exists and is just as vacuous.

I always assumed that Obama, as a gay black man, got a few breaks from some groups and unneeded vilification from others. Due to his lack of published work and poor ad hoc public speaking skills, it's darned hard to say if he was an intellectual or not. It's not a title I would give out lightly. Primate comparisons always cut to the quick with blacks it seems, so the Orange Hitler Guy-Who-Has-Sex-With-Great-Looking-Wimmin jibes likely will never have the same strength. I appreciate the strong writing skills in the OBEE WONTONs of the world, so they should definitely keep trying.

I mean it, I appreciate hearing anything from the online Left. My first tendency is always just to view them as mentally ill, and that's probably not a fair first impression.

"Obama is a respectful intellectual ..." Without going into Obama's speckled and carefully camouflaged past, I wonder what evidence can anyone give as to the man's intellect or intellectual accomplishments.

Scenes 853am - Never claimed that Obama was not smeared as a simian, only that the smearers were immediately branded as racists and worse. Asymmetry again.

Trump is still smarter AND richer than both of you.. Still President as well.
Then again,, what would one expect from the butthurt?
He proves day after day that capitalism works FAR better than proggyism.

joes 922am - I believe you're overlooking the more important aspect of Obama's intellect - namely, that it was of no importance to those of you who elected him and kept the inexperienced, know-nothing, unaccomplished, Sec8 president in office for eight years.

So what Boardman? People get canned from jobs every day.
So... You never have been fired? Do tell!
"O" never had the balls to fire anyone. Valery Jerrod wouldn't let him. You know,, the "real" puppet master.

off To San Diego for the Miss Universe Wall Beauty Contesy. Hope Trump gets an eyeful, if you catch my drift.

Who did Obama fire? Not enough deadweights, that’s for sure. That’s the problem with comparing Trump to a Washington Swamp Thang. Nobody gets fired in Washington. Not even Louis Lerner. Nobody. Not even that FBI lubberboy. They get reassigned. They get shifted around, but the nobody gets fired. Now Trump comes along and if you ain’t cutting it, you are out of here, knucklehead.....I mean it. Next. No time to suffer fools or good enough. The good is the enemy of the best.

T Rex wasn’t keen on moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, wanted to play nice with Iran and something else. Had your chance, decided to go “in a different direction”, as they say to you when they toss your app in the circular file or show you the door. You are fired, thank you for your efforts. Next.
What’s this? T Rex’s assistant says Trump fired T Rex on Twitter? Bold face lie. “You are fired as well, Little assistant to T Rex.” Get ‘em out of here, like in 12 seconds or less.

Yep, Trump does not believe in “close enough for government work”. Trump is hitting his stride and grapping the bull by the horns. Getting his engine clicking on more cylinders. What, you can’t fire public servants? Wrong. Eat Trump’s dust. Chao. Haste Bandanas.

I am truly way smarter than you bub. Heck, I use my real name while you hide your LGBT lifestyle behind a fake one.

George Bush was recently honored for his African help against AIDS. All those black people living now and/or on drugs that keep the disease at bay think he is pretty special. So based on that I call you a racist dog who hates blacks.

TodTard 11:19- Please forgive me for reminding you that the libtard Bill Gates designed the program and twisted Bush's arm to join him. But . . . What Bush giveth, the Donald taketh away. You can't have it both ways Mr. Wizard.

Joe "LGBT" Confused Smith, please stop trying to rewrite history. Who cares where things begin? It is more important to make it happen. You should know, we realize your operations were not cheap, and who paid for them?

Boy, the Buttercups sure are taking the House Intel Committee uncovering zero evidence of Russian Collusion with the God Emperor Trump (dictator for life) rather hard. “Not a smidgen of corruption.” Knocked the windout of their sails and put them a foul mood....er...a bit fouler than their natural foul state. Rank, rancid,clothespin on the nose time.

But, but, but, we know Trump did something! We just know it. Boy, the Lefties do not take losing graciously. No biggie. I don’t take all this winning graciously either. I just haven’t evolved enough. Trump used to humble, but now he is moving closer to perfect.

I wouldn’t compare intellects if I were ya. Just watching Trump running circles around ya so fast that he has has your brains scrambled and your heads spinning like a top....or more like Linda Blair’s spinning her melon then hurling the voluminous spit pea soup thang. Some call that an affliction. Don’t sound right. It’s more like an evil spirit possession. Or multiple evil spiritspossossing their mortal shells It’s the only valid possible explanation.

Or maybe watching My Gal doing the splits got their heads all a’twitter.

Bonus: I will put up Walt’s predictions and keen political awareness against anyone’s record here on this site...bar none. Drives the mush mouth holier-than-thous bonkers. Nuts. Coco for Coco Puffs. Plumb crazy. Satan’s spawn crazy.

Shame how the Lefties treat women. A scandal for sure. Such misogynistic sexist behavior is repulsive to culture normals. Gina for the top CIA dog, first woman in US history. Trump has the first women to lead a victorious Presidential campaign in US history and now the first female Top Spook. And the Left treats them like death warmed over. The Plague, the Plague!
Hillary was right. The Dems do have a problem with married white women. No worries, Hill, the feeling is mutual, loser. A most bitter loser to boot. A bitter loser on her back with legs spread is not a pretty sight.

In a show,of Administration unity, Gina gave The Warrior Monk, aka Maddog Mathias, a dozen not quite trained German Shepherds from the CIA to give to our boys down at Gitmo.

"Scenes 853am - Never claimed that Obama was not smeared as a simian, only that the smearers were immediately branded as racists and worse. Asymmetry again."

Of course, but it's just a sort of meta-politics. People will always find a way to form up teams, and your (in the broader sense) fear of being branded a racist is what gives that accusation strength. Sometimes racism is merely a synonym for observing.

I'm not sure that humans have either the intellect or vocabulary to describe what side they are on, but darn it, they just know.

My own rough approximation is that what we are seeing is a battle between Western Civilization and some other force of chaos, best defined as being anti-Western. I wouldn't bother about getting wrapped up in gun rights, abortion, tax law, free speech, etc. It's something deeper.

The current battle is fine tuning itself into Colonialist and anti-Colonialist. Best broadbrush I can come up, shooting off the hip.

2). I personally don’t care what Joy B or anyone says about Christians or any religion. But, she should not have done that as a de facto representative of the network who airs The View....aka, the ones who cuts her checks. Christians, Jews, and some others should know full well it comes with the terrority.

With that said, enough angry folks were twieeting and calling and and e-mailing the network and their sponsors to make Joy Behar say, “I am sorry my words were taken in an offensive manner”or however non-apology apologies are worded today. Nobody says, “I was wrong”. Because if you say you are wrong, then you have to change yourself. Saying “I am sorry” is true. Sorry you were forced to apologize to “those people”whom your industry ridicules every chance they get. No biggie. It’s behind us now..it’s worse on campuses. Always a silver lining.

Scenes 112pm - Apologies. I took "broader sense" in terms of a broader definition of the label, and me as such a racist; and not in the appellation of a broader collection of people so ascribed. Thank you.

George Boardman | 13 March 2018 at 01:38 PM
Never cut one class in my school years, so as usual, you are a bald-faced liar. And I thought all you libs were all about tech? So he fires the guy on twitter, I could care less. And since when are you concerned about others on the right? Never, is when. But liberals can't tell the truth can they GeorgeB? No wonder you a Pelline are so alike. HaHaHa.

Over at the FUE's:
"Ghidotti’s plans for national school walkout to protest gun violence This week marks the first national test of teenage activism against gun violence. This is from the Ghidotti Early College High School newsletter:

“Hello Ghidotti Families,

A few folks have asked about a possible walkout tomorrow in concert with the events happening across the nation.

“As principal, I’m not in a position to endorse a political position. However, it is my responsibility to make sure our students are safe and heard."

Since when does someone not in a position to endorse a political position claim it's their responsibility to ensure protesters are "heard".... Principal Levinson, I'd say your only responsibility is for student safety; whether they are heard or not is not your business unless you are passively endorsing the protestor's position.

The protest isn't about gun safety, it's about limiting the rights of gun owners. Making the guns go away, or as marijuana activist and sometime RR contributer Patricia Smith put it in an Other Voices in The Union recently, 2nd Amendment rights are not unlimited so it's not contrary to the 2nd Amendment to ban semiautomatic guns.

The heart of the issue is the iran deal that is up for review this month, simple as that.

Iran nuclear deal. Tillerson frankly admitted in August that he disagrees with President Trump about the Iran nuclear deal. Trump has harshly criticized the deal and expressed a strong preference for scuttling or renegotiating it, while Tillerson argued, “There are a lot of alternative means with which we use the agreement to advance our policies and the relationship with Iran.”
After he fired Tillerson, Trump cited the Iran deal as one of the issues he was never able to resolve with the former secretary of state.
“When you look at the Iran deal: I think it’s terrible, I guess he thinks it was OK. I wanted to break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. So we were not thinking the same,” he said, adding that new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a more “similar thought process” on the matter.

You can disagree with the boss but you can not under cut his policies. ;-)

Todd 2:05 - Re: cutting class.
Did you graduate Todd? No.
Did you leave mommy's backyard to get any education? No.
Did you leave mommy's backyard to work? No.
Do you have any sense of the world outside of mommy's backyard? Apparently not.
Did you get degrees too :-)

Lee reserves his biggest criticisms for the huge platforms -- by implication, Facebook and Google, among others -- that have come to dominate their spheres and effectively become gatekeepers. They "control which ideas and opinions are seen and shared," Lee wrote, pointing out that they're able to impede competition by creating barriers. "They acquire startup challengers, buy up new innovations and hire the industry's top talent. Add to this the competitive advantage that their user data gives them and we can expect the next 20 years to be far less innovative than the last."
Centralizing the web like this has led to serious problems, like when an Amazon Web Services outage took down a chunk of internet services over a week ago -- nearly a year to the day after another similar web-crippling incident on AWS. But bottlenecking the internet through a handful of platforms has also enabled something more sinister: The weaponization of the internet. From trending conspiracy theories all the way up to influencing American politics using hundreds of fake social media accounts, outside actors have been able to maximize their manipulation efforts thanks to a far more centralized internet than we used to have, in Lee's opinion.

"Rick Saccone, the Republican congressional candidate endorsed by President Trump in Pennsylvania’s special election, told a crowd of supporters Monday night that his opponents hate the president, the country, and God. “

"Rick Saccone, the Republican congressional candidate endorsed by President Trump in Pennsylvania’s special election, told a crowd of supporters Monday night that his opponents hate the president, the country, and God. “

If you *are* Linda Campbell as you seemed to admit a few days ago, you only went so far as to attend Chico State, and then you came back to GV, your "mommy's backyard" to "teach" the underserved kids that fall behind. And according to the STAR exam results, you taught them very little.

No, Todd is not the most academically inclined on this blog but you madam, are not ahead of him much, if at all.

Yes, Punchy, he's desperate to not lose a short term job in the Congress in a district that will go away before November, and the guy who *looks* to be on a trajectory to win does not live in the District that will exist in November.

We'll know in a few hours who won the seat... Either Trump got out his voters, or he didn't.

"Rick Saccone, the Republican congressional candidate endorsed by President Trump in Pennsylvania’s special election, told a crowd of supporters Monday night that his opponents hate the president, the country, and God. “

So what Paul? You have said the same thing HERE!
You sure forget things soon. Just the other day you said I hate Greeks. Care to show me where I said that? What I DID say, is that I have yet to meet one that tells the TRUTH. Thanks for proving that point.

You love GOD? (not by what you have said in the past.)
You love this country? Not by what you have said about it.
You even claimed the revolution was "unjust and illegal".
Yup,, you hate Trump TOO!